Storming the Barricades in Robes of Ermine

It’s a degenerate form of democracy we live in, stained by illegitimate unelected toffs and tossers. None worse than Andrew Lloyd Weber (who’s worth an estimated £650 million), who flew from New York to help bolster numbers in the House of Lords backing a totally discredited scheme which would affect one in five families next year. This sharply regressive attack on the poor is a new low but it does expose the whole charade of British politics. The Tories are left bleating about the ‘unelected Lords’ in levels of hypocrisy that would have you choking on your expenses-paid vole-au-vents. Tory backbencher Edward Leigh said: “Not for 100 years has the House of Lords defied this elected House. This is a serious matter and I ask for the speaker to give a statement to protect the rights of the elected representatives, not just for us but for the people of this country.” Theresa May’s Parliamentary Private Secretary, said: “It should and hopefully will have consequences for the House of Lords.”

Dark threats from a minority government elected on a minority vote who have no support at all in large swathes of this divided land.

Iain Macwhirter writes: “Of course, the Lords should be reformed. People who have not been elected to parliament have no place in the legislative process, let alone well over 800 of them. It is a democratic anachronism composed of ex-hereditaries, government toadies, businessmen, lawyers, bishops and assorted members of the “great and the good”. And the not so great, like Lady Mone.” But no, the House of Lords should be abolished, not reformed. It is unreformable.

“For the key fact of the defeat over tax credits was that the government was defeated by the Lords and not by the Labour Party.” But the Labour position is hilariously equivocal. As the FM writes: “I’m no fan of the House of Lords but, if you are a Labour peer, why would you abstain in a vote to stop tax credit cuts?”

This kind of ceaseless prevarication against a starkly obvious wrong that has massive opposition in the country leads you to utter despair about the Labour Party.

Perhaps funniest of all is the Red Baron (pictured) himself tweeting: “Labour Govt. would now be replacing Lords with Senate of Nations & Regions if SNP hadn’t helped Tories back to power”.

As I wrote yesterday, the media is now filled with grand celebrations of our system and our wonderful constitution. In the Guardian the imbeclic Simon Jenkins writes; “If you are leftwing, last night’s House of Lords vote on tax credits was a triumph.” No it wasn’t, it was a tragedy which will be used to prop up this ridiculous feudal pile. The consequences are either a reactionary Tory backlash under the veil of ‘parliamentary democracy’ or an unelected chamber celebrated in the media, or both. Meanwhile the victory everyone is countering on about is just a temporary delay till Osborne gets his spin right.

We’re told that Davidson raised concerns about the Chancellor’s plans at the Conservative Party conference earlier this month. Before the vote, Davidson apparently told the Mail On Sunday that the cuts were “necessary but needed to be introduced more carefully”. Whatever that means.

“The idea that there’s a cliff edge in April before the uptake in wages comes in is a real practical human problem and the Government needs to look again at it,” she said.

On Tuesday, Alex Johnstone, a member of Holyrood’s Welfare Reform Committee told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “She was concerned about that and she was the one who first raised the problem with the Chancellor from a Scottish perspective.m”I think it’s important that we remember that we all need to work together the ensure that the policy applies appropriately across the country. With a limited representation of Scottish members of parliament in Westminster, the Chancellor perhaps didn’t have that opportunity as early as he could.”

He continued: “But Ruth Davidson attends (political) cabinet meetings on a monthly basis, and she took the opportunity to make sure he knew.”

This is utter nonsense. The idea that the Scottish Conservatives can distance themselves from their own policies, or the myth that Davidson has some kind of influence at a UK level needs exposed. Davidson, for some inexplicable reason, gets a completely free ride from the Scottish media. I wonder if a more critical edge will emerge from this or will we all just chuckle along?

muttley79
1 year ago

Perhaps funniest of all is the Red Baron (pictured) himself tweeting: “Labour Govt. would now be replacing Lords with Senate of Nations & Regions if SNP hadn’t helped Tories back to power”.

It is not as if Labour had thirteen years of unbroken rule at Westminster to replace the Lords is it? Yet more garbage from Foulkes.

Davidson, for some inexplicable reason, gets a completely free ride from the Scottish media. I wonder if a more critical edge will emerge from this or will we all just chuckle along?

There is nothing inexplicable about it whatsoever. Ruth Davidson is a British nationalist and unionist, so it is no surprise that she gets promoted and supported by the MSM in Scotland, which is overwhelmingly unionist. Davidson leads the Scottish branch of the British Conservative Party, and like her Labour and Liberal Democrat counterparts in Scotland, exists primarily to protect the Union, and deny Scotland as much autonomy as they can manage.

Bill Low
1 year ago

I agree with muttley79. Again I return to the words of Aneurin Bevan 'no amount of cajolery or persuasion can remove the hate in my heart for the Tories, they are lower than vermin.' Ruth Davidson is not even that good

Douglas Robertson
1 year ago

The Ruth Davidson interview (sic) on Scotland 2015 last night was a classic of the genre. How she was able to babble complete guff and at no time being challenged by the regular replacement Sarah Smith (has she now got better things to do?) was classic BBC politics coverage.

john young
1 year ago

Y,all should listen to the "Keiser Report" on RT news to me an excellent news programme inmo,he gives you an insight into what,s going on in the financial world not only of the City of London but world wide,robber barrons doesn,t come near to description.

Bill Dale
1 year ago

One of the best Keiser Reports going. Absolutely a must=listen for all elected representatives. SNP MPs are you reading this? Then listen to Keiser, particularly the second half for an analysis which you will not get anywhere else.

john young
1 year ago

Completely agree Bill not only is the Keiser report so illuminating the rest of the nes info is very good,totally putting the media here in the shade,like you said it should be a must read for all politicians even more so the SNP.I know little of the financial machinations nobody other than a very few seem to be able to get a handle on it,more by design I think,what is obvious is that these robbers are getting away with a massive fraud.

Valerie
1 year ago

Good article.
What is sad, is that social media is full of 'govt defeat'. Absolutely no analysis, and the usual garbage about Labour peers doing a good job of bloodying Gideons nose.
This despite the facts of Labour abstaining, are out there.
It's hideous watching it.

Anton
1 year ago

The problem is that the tax credit system really does need reform.

As Frank Field has pointed out "It does not make sense to take tax from low earners and then give them back this money in the form of tax credits. This approach has built up a devilishly complex system which sometimes causes more problems than it was set up to solve. The Government’s strategy of trying to simplify the system, therefore, is the right one."

Or, as the Mirrlees Review has it, it's essential for an effective tax and benefit system to implement "a significant simplification and integration of the benefit system. The current structure of multiple benefits with an array of overlapping means tests leaves some people facing effective marginal tax rates of over 90 per cent. It is complex, inequitable and inefficient."

I couldn't agree more. The tragedy is that, faced with an opportunity, the Government has managed to f*ck it up completely.

Cllr Paddy S Hogg
1 year ago

Great article Mike. Wow that the zombies of the dead have pulsed a sign of life. The crew of 'Tally ho old chaps!!!! are as self-calculating as most career parasite politicians. This was a STUNT everyone surely sees through?

The motive behind this anachronistic graveyard shuffle of the ermine dressed dead clowns is to have a positive role in UK politics and display their compassionate human heart for one self seeking calculated reason alone: the Palace of Westminster needs several billion pounds of OUR MONEY to upgrade the old stone face of the ancient home of parliamentary privilege. To get our money and our applause and seem relevant this was an orchestrated stunt. Shut down the House of Lords!

bill fraser
1 year ago

Yes why indeed .Ruth Davidson seems to be unsure what party she supports,or at least what she truly feels in regard to decisions made in Westminster and how she should react to them.I read recently that she is giving up her Glasgow seat to stand in a Edinburgh constituency.For what reason wasn't explained though it was also suggested her eventual ambition was to be an M.P. in an English one ,as a few Scottish Tories have done in the past.

punklin
1 year ago

Even the Tories' grasp of human psychology is pathetic. Anyone who's ever managed anything knows that you can't make a change without giving people something in return. And every parent knows that you have to offer a child something else before you take something away.

I'm not suggesting those receiving tax credits could be satisfied or helped in this way but you'd think our rulers would at least know how to be a little less crude in their handling of it all. Their ineptitude is exceeded only by their callousness and pig-headed arrogance.

Wul
1 year ago

You're right. The Tories are so far out of touch they can't really imagine the lives of the "Hard Working Families" they talk about.
Privilege and the emotional cauterisation caused by boarding school from age 8yrs have rendered them soulless. From a neurological point of view, they are operating with a reptilian brain.

Bella Caledonia Editor
1 year ago

Mike
1 year ago

Brian McGraw
1 year ago

Good article Mike. It's all a big game of spinning the truth to suit and relies on their belief that the majority of us are ill informed and naive or can't/won't see past our innate loyalty to party. Fortunately we have excellent sources like Bella, Wings, Scot goes pop etc to examine these games in detail and expose the propaganda and disinformation. Unfortunately, still too many of our population are being taken in because they don't seek alternative sources of info and rely on our inept/ biased MSM - so our priority is to share articles like this. Sometimes I wonder if even the Sunday Herald or National adequately reports on these matters.